As used in the description below, the term vessel refers generally to tanks, barrels and other industrial containers that are used to contain liquids in repetitive production cycles. Wine in particular is processed in barrels, preferably oak barrels for best taste and body. Wine barrels are generally stored in horizontal orientation on racks in order to conserve floor space. The head space from the top of a lower barrel to the bottom of an upper barrel stacked on a rack is typically no greater than 20 cm (8.0 inches). The barrel has a single opening known as a bunghole in the middle of the curved sidewall. During the wine production process, samples of wine are periodically extracted through the bunghole and additives are inserted to conform the batch being processed to the desired final characteristics. The bunghole is sealed with a bung, a type of cork, after the sampling and additive procedure has been completed.
A residue of the grapes and additives will remain in the oak barrel after the wine is fermented and the completed wine has been bottled. This residue must be cleaned before the barrel is used again. This cleaning process helps the purity of future wine batches and extends barrel life. Before the present invention, cleaning of wine barrels and other vessels required removing the vessel from the rack. An earlier process for barrel cleaning involved inverting the barrel to position the bunghole at the bottom and inserting a controlled spray device, for example a Gamajet® EZ-7 barrel washer, into the bunghole; the surplus cleaning fluid continuously drained out of the downward-facing bunghole by gravity. This method has the drawback of having to remove the barrels from their storage racks and inverting them for cleaning, requiring additional labor and a dedicated floor area. In addition, this prior method causes flooding of the area below and around the barrel being cleaned with the spent cleaning fluid that carries grape and additive residue.
A significantly improved washer apparatus and method is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/089,085 filed Mar. 24, 2005 and entitled VESSEL CLEANING DEVICE by the present inventors. This prior invention is known commercially as the Gamajet® All-In-One barrel cleaning machine. Patent application Ser. No. 11/089,085 is incorporated herein by reference. The All-In-One machine disclosed therein incorporates a pressurized fluid passage for injecting fresh cleaning fluid into the barrel and a suction passage for simultaneously removing the spent cleaning fluid from the barrel. This improvement allows the barrel to be cleaned in the normal position with the bunghole facing up. The All-In-One machine is formed as an elongate linear structure. The fresh cleaning fluid is discharged from a spray nozzle disposed within the barrel to impinge the interior surfaces of the barrel. The suction line passes through the drive body and the rotating nozzle structure to a tube that is positioned within the barrel or other vessel being cleaned. This All-In-One cleaning machine eliminates the area flooding described above with relation to the EZ-7 machine by extracting the spent cleaning fluid from the vessel being cleaned. However, a particular limiting requirement of the All-In-One machine is that with the bunghole facing up, a considerable clearance over the top of the barrel is needed for insertion and extraction of the elongate cleaning mechanism. This clearance distance typically requires that the barrels must be removed from their multi-level rack storage for cleaning, a time-consuming task. Furthermore, barrel moving involves a risk of barrel damage or injury to personnel. It is more desirable to clean barrels while on their storage racks, thus saving time and floor space as well as being a safer procedure.